11 Quotes About Winter From Literature That Make The Perfect Instagram Captions

If you've been paying attention to the national weather reports, than you know that the east coast of the United States is about to be pummeled by unprecedented winter storms. While you may be grappling to understand unfamiliar terms like "winter vortex," "Bombogenesis," and "bomb cyclone," you don't have to try very hard to find literary quotes about winter.

While it may sound like the perfect frozen dessert from your beloved ice cream shop, the bomb cyclone that Winter Storm Grayson is bringing with is anything but sweet. A winter hurricane that promises extreme record-breaking cold, heavy snowfall, strong winds, dramatic pressure changes, and dangerous, if not impossible travel conditions. Funny language aside, one thing is for certain: this bomb cyclone is no joke. The best way you can weather the storm, and whatever else winter brings, is to stay indoors with a warm blanket, a hot tea, and a good book.

If this week is any indicator, winter 2018 is bringing with it some intense weather. Be prepared by not only bundling up in warm clothes, stocking your kitchen with food and water, and gathering emergency supplies, but by saving these 15 literary quotes that perfectly describe the season ahead.

"In the falling quiet there was no sky or earth, only snow lifting in the wind, frosting the window glass, chilling the rooms, deadening and hushing the city."

“Nothing burns like the cold.”

“The exact science of one molecule transformed into another ― that Mabel could not explain, but then again she couldn't explain how a fetus formed in the womb, cells becoming beating heart and hoping soul. She could not fathom the hexagonal miracle of snowflakes formed from clouds, crystallized fern and feather that tumble down to light on a coat sleeve, white stars melting even as they strike. How did such force and beauty come to be in something so small and fleeting and unknowable?”

"This is how it was: The snow came down heavily, settled for about a minute, then the wind moved it - more rolled it, really - onto another target. One minute you were covered in snow, then it sped off sideways, as if a brisk, invisible giant had taken pity and brushed you down."

“My breath came out in a fog and rose into the milky sky. Snow fell on my eyelashes, and all of Brooklyn turned white, a world in a globe. Every snowflake that I caught was a miracle unlike any other.”

“Slush is frozen over. People say that winter lasts forever, but it's because they obsess over the thermometer. North in the mountains, the maple syrup is trickling. Brave geese punch through the thin ice left on the lake. Underground, pale seeds roll over in their sleep. Starting to get restless. Starting to dream green.”

“The wind swept the snow aside, ever faster and thicker, as if it were trying to catch up with something, and Yurii Andreievich stared ahead of him out of the window, as if he were not looking at the snow but were still reading Tonia’s letter and as if what flickered past him were not small dry snow crystals but the spaces between the small black letters, white, white, endless, endless.”

“The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.”

"The blast that swept him came off New Hampshire snow-fields and ice-hung forests. It seemed to have traversed interminable leagues of frozen silence, filling them with the same cold roar and sharpening its edge against the same bitter black-and-white landscape."

“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person”

“There's an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem that's been rumbling around inside me ever since I first read it, and part of it goes: 'Blown from the dark hill hither to my door/ Three flakes, then four/ Arrive, then many more.' You can count the first three flakes, and the fourth. Then language fails, and you have to settle in and try to survive the blizzard.”

“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

“The snow came up to the top of Georgie's calves - she had to lift her feet high to make any progress. Her ears and eyelids were freezing... God, she'd never even been able to imagine this much cold before. How could people live someplace that so obviously didn't want them?”